Department for Work and Pensions

Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) 15th March 2019, Brussels

Alok Sharma: The Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council took place on 15th March 2019 in Brussels. I represented the UK.The Council agreed a partial General Approach Regulation on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF).The Council debated the social dimension of Europe post 2020 and the European Semester. As part of the Semester agenda item, the Council adopted the Joint Employment Report for 2019, along with conclusions on the 2019 Annual Growth Survey.There were a number of progress reports and information items during the Council. The Presidency gave updates on six current legislative proposals: Regulation establishing a European Labour Authority; Revision of the Regulations on the coordination of social security systems; Revision of the Directive on carcinogens and mutagens (third batch); and Directives on work-life balance, on accessibility requirements for products and services and on transparent and predictable working conditions. The Council closed with information on events and initiatives in the broader field of employment and social policy.


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Treasury

ECOFIN: 12 March 2019

Mr Philip Hammond: A meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) was held in Brussels on 12 March 2019. The UK was represented by Mark Bowman (Director General, International Finance, HM Treasury). The Council discussed the following:Early Morning SessionThe Eurogroup President briefed the Council on the outcomes of the 11 March meeting of the Eurogroup, and the European Commission provided an update on the current economic situation in the EU. Ministers then discussed the location of the InvestEU Investment Committee Secretariat.Excise DutiesThe Council discussed: the Directive on general arrangements for excise duty (recast); the Regulation on administrative cooperation of the content of electronic registers; and the Directive on the structures of excise duty on alcohol and alcoholic beverages.Digital Services TaxThe Council held an exchange of views on the EU-wide Digital Services Tax proposal.InvestEUThe Council held an exchange of views on the location of the InvestEU Investment Committee Secretariat.Current Financial Services Legislative ProposalsThe Romanian Presidency provided an update on current legislative proposals in the field of financial services.European SemesterFollowing a presentation by the Commission on its 2019 Country Reports, the Council held an exchange of views on the implementation of country-specific recommendations, focussing on investment in Member States.EU List of Non-Cooperative Jurisdictions for Tax PurposesThe Council adopted Council conclusions revising the December 2017 EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.Status of the Implementation of Financial Services LegislationThe Council was debriefed on the status of the implementation of financial services legislation.Coalition for Climate ActionThe Finnish Finance Minister informed the Council on plans to launch the Coalition for Climate Action in the context of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings in April.


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Decommissioning Relief Deeds

Robert Jenrick: At Budget 2013, the government announced it would begin signing decommissioning relief deeds. These deeds represented a new contractual approach to provide oil and gas companies with certainty on the level of tax relief they will receive on future decommissioning costs.Since October 2013, the government has entered into 92 decommissioning relief deeds.Oil & Gas UK estimates that these deeds have so far unlocked approximately £6bn of capital, which can now be invested elsewhere.The government committed to report to Parliament every year on progress with the decommissioning relief deeds. The report for financial year 2017-18 is provided below.Number of decommissioning relief agreements entered into: the government entered into 4 decommissioning relief agreements in 2017-18.Total number of decommissioning relief agreements in force at the end of that year: 87 decommissioning relief agreements were in force at the end of the year.Number of payments made under any decommissioning relief agreements during that year, and the amount of each payment: two payments were made under a decommissioning relief agreement in 2017-18, one for £41.8m[1] and another for £3.6m. These were made in relation to the provision recognised by HM Treasury in 2015, as a result of a company defaulting on its decommissioning obligations.Total number of payments that have been made under any decommissioning relief agreements as at the end of that year, and the total amount of those payments: three payments have been made under any decommissioning relief agreement as at the end of the 2017-18 financial year, totalling £50.8m.Estimate of the maximum amount liable to be paid under any decommissioning relief agreements: the government has not made any changes to the tax regime that would generate a liability to be paid under any decommissioning relief agreements. HM Treasury’s 2018-19 accounts will recognise a provision of £357.1m in respect of decommissioning expenditure incurred as a result of a company defaulting on their decommissioning obligations[2]. The majority of this is expected to be realised over the next five years. [1] This figure was later revised down by £11.8m, with the amount having been fully recovered, together with interest, in the 2018-19 financial year.[2] This figure takes into account payments made subsequent to the financial year covered by this Written Ministerial Statement.


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Northern Ireland Office

Northern Ireland Update

Karen Bradley: I am today laying before Parliament a statutory instrument which extends the period for Executive formation under the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation and Exercise of Functions) Act 2018 from 26 March 2019 to 25 August 2019. This means that from 26 August 2019 I will fall under the duty to propose a date for an Assembly election. I do not consider it appropriate to extend the period for any less than the full five months permitted by the Act. A shorter period could risk not allowing sufficient time for a talks process to conclude. I have taken the decision to extend this period following engagement I have had with the five main political parties in Northern Ireland and the Irish Government over the past few weeks. In those discussions all five parties reaffirmed their commitment to restoring a power-sharing Executive and the other political institutions set out in the Belfast Agreement. I also consider that the five parties and the Irish Government would support a short, focused set of round table talks to restore all the Belfast Agreement institutions. These will involve the UK Government, the five parties and the Irish Government, as appropriate, and will take place in full accordance with the well-established three-stranded approach. I am proposing a short, focused set of round table talks to restore devolution and the other institutions at the earliest opportunity.

Department of Health and Social Care

Mental Health Workforce Data

Jackie Doyle-Price: The NHS Long Term Plan set out this Government’s ambition to transform how the NHS supports mental health, building on the work already underway to deliver the commitments in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health.Our plans depend on having the right workforce in place. The Government, in consultation with NHS England, Health Education England and NHS Improvement, asked NHS Digital to review how it counts the mental health workforce with the goal of providing us with a more accurate possible baseline against which to track progress towards delivering our ambitions.Previously, several different approaches had been taken, including counting total numbers of staff working in Mental Health, Learning Disability and Care Trusts, which included staff working in other specialisms, such as community health staff who support people’s physical health. NHS Digital has developed a new approach that will improve accuracy by counting only those staff who work directly on mental health, regardless of the type of organisation in which they work. It will also provide a greater level of transparency in relation to the workforce, for example, staff working in priority areas, such as crisis care or children and young people’s mental health services.NHS Digital will publish its quarterly mental health workforce data under this new definition on 21 March 2019. Because it focusses on staff working directly on mental health in NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts, the new headline figures will show a smaller total number of people working in mental health, they do not yet provide a full picture of the mental health workforce. For example, they do not include the very significant number of staff providing NHS funded mental health services in other organisations such as the voluntary sector, local authorities and primary care settings. We are therefore planning further changes to the data in the future to enable us to better understand these staff numbers and associated patient outcomes.This new approach underlines the scale of the challenge ahead of us to make the increases we all agree are needed to the mental health workforce and bring about improvements to the lives of the people they are here to support. The Government is committed to meeting this challenge. Following the recent publication of the NHS Long Term Plan, the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care asked Baroness Dido Harding to develop a Workforce Implementation Plan.An Interim Workforce Plan will be published in the spring and will include an immediate 2019/20 action plan together with a more detailed vision of how the health and care workforce will transform over the next ten years to deliver 21st century care for our patients. The plan will build on work already underway to recruit, train and importantly retain more staff to address our most immediate shortages.


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